Muslim-Hindu tension: Land riots bring down Kashmir coalition

Violent street protests by rival groups of Muslims and Hindus in a dispute over 40 hectares of forest land led to the fall of the democratically elected government in India's Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday.

The chief minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who headed a coalition government, submitted his resignation to the provincial governor after the People's Democratic party pulled out of the coalition and it became clear that he could no longer muster a majority in the state assembly.

The governor, NN Vohra, who accepted the resignation, had earlier asked Azad to prove his majority in the state assembly.

The collapse of the Congress-led coalition government is seen as a huge setback for the peace process and has raised fears of a revival of Muslim separatist groups.

After years of bloodshed the political situation in Indian-administered Kashmir had become stable and relatively peaceful. "The violence had decreased, the tourists were coming back, the separatist groups had been sidelined and all the mainstream political parties were looking forward to the next assembly election in October," said a Srinagar-based analyst, Taher Mohiuddin. "But suddenly Kashmir has been plunged into a crisis again."

The crisis was sparked last month when tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley to protest against the lease by the government of nearly 40 hectares of forest land to a religious authority which supervises a pilgrimage to a popular shrine of the Hindu god Shiva.

An ice stalagmite that forms annually in a cave in the Kashmir Himalayas is revered as a symbol of Shiva, attracting devout Hindus from across India. The forest land was intended to house temporary facilities for the pilgrims.

The land transfer had been pushed through by the newly appointed provincial governor's predecessor, Lieutenant General SK Sinha, who is considered close to the Hindu rightwing Bharatiya Janata party. Kashmiri Muslims perceived him as anti-Islam.

Traditionally Kashmiri Muslims have played an active ceremonial role in the Hindu pilgrimage to Lord Shiva's cave, besides providing other assistance to the pilgrims. But Muslim distrust of Sinha turned the forest land lease into "a conspiracy to change Kashmir's demography".

"Land is a very sensitive issue in Kashmir," said Mohiuddin. "The people feel they've already lost a lot, and if now their land also goes, then everything is gone."

Kashmir is one of three Indian hill states where outside Indians are banned from owning real estate.

The Kashmiri Muslim protests left at least five stone-throwing youths dead and scores injured. It forced the government to rescind the land transfer, in turn provoking violent agitation in the state's Hindu-dominated Jammu region. More people were killed as Hindus took to the streets in BJP-led protests against the government. A curfew was in force in several areas yesterday.

In the wake of Azad's resignation, other parties will be given a chance to form a majority coalition. If they fail, the elections scheduled for October could be brought forward.